Jean O'Barr

O'Barr started her career as a lecturer at Purdue University in 1964. In four years, she started her long relationship with Duke University, first as a lecturer in 1969, then as an adjunct associate professor in 1978, and in 1991, working there as a professor of the practice of women's studies and adjunct professor of political science.
Currently, she holds the position of the Distinguished University Service Professor and the founding director of women's studies at Duke University, holding the Margaret Taylor Smith Directorship.
During her career, O'Barr was also a speaker at colleges and universities, including Berea College, Vassar College, Texas A&M University, University of Maine, Colby College, Appalachian State University, University of Kansas, and Western Kentucky University.
During her career, O'Barr has written nearly 100 articles and books, including Transforming Knowledge: Public Talks on Women’s Studies 1976-2011 (2013), Feminism in Action: Building Community and Institutions through Women’s Studies (1995), Women Imagine Change: A Global Anthology of Women's Resistance from 600 B.C.E. to Present (1997; with Eugenia DeLamotte and Natania Meeke), and Africa in the Disciplines: Contributions of the Study of Africa to the Humanities and Social Sciences (1993; with Robert H. Yates and Valentin Y. Mudimbe). She also served as editor-in-chief of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, the leading international journal in women's studies, and co-founded the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, part of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University. Her papers are housed at the Bingham Center.

Ties that Bind: Essays on Mothering and Patriarchy

SIGNS

Journal of Women in Culture and Society Volume 16 Number 2 Winter 1991

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003BGTTSY/?tag=prabook0b-20

1991

Perspectives on Power: Women in Africa, Asia, and Latin America

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00160XH1W/?tag=prabook0b-20

1991

Feminism in Action

(Feminism in Action is Jean O'Barr's firsthand account of ...)

Feminism in Action is Jean O'Barr's firsthand account of two decades spent working to promote the cause of higher education for women through the establishment of women's studies programs.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807821292/?tag=prabook0b-20

1994

Talking Gender

(Talking Gender assesses the state of women's studies in t...)

Talking Gender assesses the state of women's studies in the 1990s.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807845973/?tag=prabook0b-20

1996

Transforming Knowledge

(In this collection of essays, Jean O’Barr offers a histor...)

In this collection of essays, Jean O’Barr offers a historical archive of how we have thought about feminism, women’s studies, and the transformation of knowledge over the years, painting a detailed picture of what it looks like to change both knowledge and structures on a university campus.

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Jean Fox O'Barr is an American leading feminist educator, scholar, administrator and author. She holds the position of the founding director of women's studies at Duke University, holding the Margaret Taylor Smith Directorship, the first endowed Directorship in the United States.

Background

Jean Fox O'Barr was born on November 6, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois, United States. She is the daughter of Robert W. and Jean (Stewart) Fox.

Education

O'Barr received her undergraduate degree from Indiana University in 1964 and her master's degree and a doctorate in Political Science from Northwestern University in 1965 and 1970, respectively. She also earned a certificate in African Studies from the same university in 1970 based on her graduate work in Tanzania.

Career

O'Barr started her career as a lecturer at Purdue University in 1964. In four years, she started her long relationship with Duke University, first as a lecturer in 1969, then as an adjunct associate professor in 1978, and in 1991, working there as a professor of the practice of women's studies and adjunct professor of political science.

Currently, she holds the position of the Distinguished University Service Professor and the founding director of women's studies at Duke University, holding the Margaret Taylor Smith Directorship.

During her career, O'Barr was also a speaker at colleges and universities, including Berea College, Vassar College, Texas A&M University, University of Maine, Colby College, Appalachian State University, University of Kansas, and Western Kentucky University.

During her career, O'Barr has written nearly 100 articles and books, including Transforming Knowledge: Public Talks on Women’s Studies 1976-2011 (2013), Feminism in Action: Building Community and Institutions through Women’s Studies (1995), Women Imagine Change: A Global Anthology of Women's Resistance from 600 B.C.E. to Present (1997; with Eugenia DeLamotte and Natania Meeke), and Africa in the Disciplines: Contributions of the Study of Africa to the Humanities and Social Sciences (1993; with Robert H. Yates and Valentin Y. Mudimbe). She also served as editor-in-chief of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, the leading international journal in women's studies, and co-founded the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, part of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University. Her papers are housed at the Bingham Center.

Achievements

Jean Fox O'Barr is best known as a feminist educator and scholar, whose pioneering work helped establish women’s studies as a program of academic study and support for women in higher education.

Change magazine named her among One Hundred Outstanding Young Leaders in Education in 1978, and O'Barr was selected for the Ford and Exxon Education Foundation’s study of 25 influential female leaders of the women’s movement.

In 2000, she was named Distinguished University Service Professor at Duke University, the first woman to be named in school history.

Views

O'Barr is a feminist.

Membership

O'Barr is a member of the National Council for Research on Women, American Council on Education, African Studies Association, American Political Science Association, American Association of Higher Education, National Women’s Studies Association, Women Administrators in North Carolina Higher Education and North Carolina Adult Education Association.

Interests

Other Interests

Travel, gardening, reading

Connections

O'Barr married William M. O'Barr on September 4, 1965. The couple has 2 children: Claire Anne and Emily Catherine.